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Place dossier plate
SheetMD-WESTMINSTER-MD · Westminster, MD 20,257 pop · income 61st pct · 37 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Westminster
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Westminster on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Lennox · lowest
60,307
Lennox · lowest
60,307 median HH income
43.4% of the leader · rank #1
McGuire AFB · near
79,423
McGuire AFB · near
79,423 median HH income
57.2% of the leader · rank #2
Westminster · this city
79,431
Westminster · this city
79,431 median HH income
57.2% of the leader · rank #3
Pumpkin Hollow · near
79,432
Pumpkin Hollow · near
79,432 median HH income
57.2% of the leader · rank #4
Tom Bean · near
79,432
Tom Bean · near
79,432 median HH income
57.2% of the leader · rank #5
Manawa · near
79,432
Manawa · near
79,432 median HH income
57.2% of the leader · rank #6
Lynbrook · highest
138,866
Lynbrook · highest
138,866 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Westminster on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 20,257.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Westminster - the verdict
Westminster ranks in the 61st percentile for household income and the 26th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
61st
percentile, household income
68th
percentile, home value
84th
percentile, median rent
26th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Westminster, MD
20,257 people live in Westminster, Maryland - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Westminster households earn a median of $79,431 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.9%. Home values in Westminster run a median of $318,100, and the median resident age is 39.1 years. Educational attainment runs 35.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 60.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2283.4 crimes per 100,000 residents, near the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
Maryland carries a cost-of-living premium: the state registers 105.0 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,657 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Maryland's average monthly utility costs around $255 (state average). On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 60.2 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Westminster's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from reported crime to comparison shortlist to population change to housing and income to schools and households to within-city variation to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Westminster, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in Westminster?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2283.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 0% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
Which cities make useful reference points for Westminster?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within Maryland, the closest population matches are Rosedale (20,845 residents, $83,957 income); Hyattsville (20,861 residents, $94,231 income); Arbutus (20,869 residents, $97,215 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Morristown, NJ (20,256 residents); Howard, WI (20,261 residents); Lynbrook, NY (20,251 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Is Westminster growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +442 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.2% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
What can 37 Census tracts reveal inside Westminster?
PlainCities matches 37 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Westminster?
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
4.0×
Home value
$318,100
Household income
$79,431
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the education layer cover for Westminster?
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
The NCES join finds 17 public schools within the city match. 35.4% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
Poverty estimate
9.9%
Bachelor's degree+
35.4%
Matched public schools
17
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Westminster?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 73.5%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Drive alone
73.5%
Work from home
13.8%
Public transit
0.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 10,337 workers age 16+.
Above median income · poverty 9.9% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
105.0 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Maryland average
D
City profile score · Westminster, MD
45/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Bachelor's+ share B-
35.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C
$79,431
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime D
242 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate D
9.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
105.0 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Westminster profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 67/100 (B-) · 35.4%
Household income: 59/100 (C) · $79,431
Violent crime: 42/100 (D) · 242 /100k
Poverty rate: 40/100 (D) · 9.9%
Cost of living: 21/100 (F) · 105.0 index
Where Westminster sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Westminster's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Westminster highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Westminster, MD (this city): home $318,100, crime 2,283/100k
Morristown, NJ : home $552,800, crime 1,063/100k
Sherwood, OR : home $564,200, crime 1,651/100k
Hyattsville, MD : home $463,500, crime 4,028/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Westminster compare to other US cities?
Here's how Westminster stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income61% higher than other cities
Home value68% pricier than other cities
Median rent84% pricier than other cities
Safety26% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Maryland alone, Westminster ranks #38 of 70 Maryland cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Westminster against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Maryland only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Maryland-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Westminster near the bottom of Maryland's cities
Among the 479 Maryland cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Westminster ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Westminster only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#314 of 445
29th percentile in Maryland
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 479
0th percentile in Maryland
Median Home Value
#284 of 450
37th percentile in Maryland
Poverty Rate
#94 of 479
80th percentile in Maryland
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#235 of 479
51st percentile in Maryland
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Maryland only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
61st percentile nationally for median household income · 26th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Westminster's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Westminster's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Westminster's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$318,10032nd percentilemore affordable than 32% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Westminster's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,723 of 15,516
More affordable than 31% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,992 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.0×, Westminster sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,723 of 15,516 and #1,992 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$79,431Westminster, MD median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Westminster, MD median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Westminster, MD.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)35.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
20,257
Median Income
$79,431
Median Home Value
$318,100
Median Age
39.1
Poverty Rate
9.9%
Labor force participation
60.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
35.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2283.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
241.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2041.5
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
17
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Westminster's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
20,147 residents
2021
20,321 residents
2022
20,449 residents
2023
20,605 residents
2024
20,628 residents
2025
20,589 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
73.5%
Carpool
8.6%
Public Transit
0.2%
Walk
3.0%
Work from Home
13.8%
Other
0.9%
Based on 10,337 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Maryland statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $255
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Maryland at $255 (electricity about $120 , water and sewer about $55 ).
These are Maryland statewide averages, not a meter reading for Westminster. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Maryland's BEA cost-of-living index is 105.0 (Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Westminster is $1,657/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Maryland statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 60.2 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Maryland statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Westminster sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Westminster compares to similar-size Maryland cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.